Hot off the heels of double Yankee Hill Machine silencer reviews this past Saturday, we are right back at you today with some 300BLK subsonic goodness. The YHM ULTimate upper receiver (“top end”) was announced in mid-October 2018, and since the government “processing” of NFA items like suppressors is painfully slow, even if you bought one right away it would still be sitting in your dealer’s safe. However, thanks to Yankee Hill and Silencer Shop, we are lucky enough to be able to give you a preview of sorts into this suppressed upper receiver for your AR15.

Last year Mean Arms, the makers of the MA Loader, came out with a caliber conversion insert. The EndoMag converts a 5.56x45mm PMAG into 9mm. With the EndoMag you can use your standard AR lower to shoot 9mm and all you need is a 9mm upper.

Good afternoon everyone and thank you for reading TFB’s Silencer Saturday, where we voluntarily register our firearms with the government and gladly pay $200 for the pleasure to do so. Today we get to review the YHM Resonator and YHM Turbo, complete with some scientific decibel meter readings. We have also shot and tested the YHM ULTimate upper reciver group and a a review should be coming out sometime this week (sorry for the suspense). But let’s get back to the YHM Resonator and Turbo reviews.

The SiOnyx Aurora is a rather capable night vision camera. Read my review of it here. While the Aurora night vision camera was never intended to be helmet mounted I was able to cobble something together to see if it could be done. The popularity of the Aurora camera has driven individuals like Lucian of Lion’s Gear Solutions to make accessories like his Aurora bridge Hyperion Mount.

After over a year of waiting, I finally found a Tikka T1x in .22LR (one was sold out from under me while I was at SHOT this year, ironically).  I handled one at SHOT 2018 and was impressed, but acquiring one of my own proved difficult up until now.  The production model I finally found did not disappoint, however.  Getting to the range with the rifle would be another agonizing wait. I received the gun at the beginning of what would turn out to be the snowiest month ever recorded in my area.  After a very long month of constant shoveling and snowplow work, I was determined to get some range time.

You just bought a Glock, and let’s face it, those plastic factory Glock sights are flat out embarrassing. Plastic sights on a metal slide just don’t make a whole lot of sense, and they are definitely nothing to write home about. When it comes time to upgrade those sights there are two things you may want to consider: Suppressors and Red Dot Sights (RDS).

Last year Cloud Defensive started a journey to make the best weapon light on the market. It took a year and the light has gone through some significant changes from when I posted about it almost a year ago to the day. Click here to see what it looked like a year ago. Well, I got my hands on a Cloud Defensive OWL thanks to my friend Jason. Let’s take a look at this self-proclaimed Optimized Weapon Light (OWL).

TriStar Tactical Shotgun is an interesting addition to the gun world. I know many will reject it immediately for being a bullpup, and that is fine, but having had a chance to play with a 12 gauge bullpup was a welcomed exit from the gun world standard. Every time I took this shotgun to the range, people approached me asking about it, wanting to fire it.

For those of you who are hardcore flashlight aficionados, the name PK is well known. For those who don’t know PK (Paul Kim), he designed most of your favorite SureFire flashlights. The Scoutlight, Hellfighter, X300 and loads more were his designs. He left SureFire to start his own company and he calls it PK Designlab. He came out with a couple of handheld lights and a couple years ago he came out with the Rocket, a single cell weapon light. Last April he teased the flashlight world with his designs for a new line of weapon lights. Well, now he is coming out with his white/IR weapon light called M51-WIR. He also has a new tape switch that is SureFire compatible and features a 90° plug.

The new Kimber Micro 9 ESV is one of the latest additions to Kimber’s Micro 9 line of pistols. Like other Micro 9’s, the ESV has a steel slide and aluminum frame, and is an upscaled version of their Micro chambered in .380. The unique features of the ESV are:

In early November, I posted about a new revolver speedloader called the Ripcord, manufactured by CK Tactical Inc. To my knowledge, the Ripcord is the only “pull-tab speedloader” currently on the market, but the mechanics to use it are similar to previous examples I wrote about here. CK Tactical was nice enough to send me a couple 5 and 6 shot models to test. In the comments section of the Ripcord Speedloader product announcement, several concerns were raised and I set out to find the answers as well as put them to the test on the range.

It was probably halfway through the second magazine that the new gun butterflies started to wear off.  The jarring over gassed recoil, combined with the massive concussion that comes with having a short 12.5in barrel, was enough to make me want to put the gun back in the bag and go home.  For the past three years I’d been shooting almost all of my rifles suppressed. Combine this with a cramped indoor range and shooting this rifle was borderline intolerable. I’d also gone a step further on my AR pattern rifles and added adjustable gas carriers.  All of that customization lead to easy to shoot suppressed rifles. Something I was desperately missing.

Holsters are like Pringles… you can’t just have one. It does not matter if you have 2 or 20. Whether you are fully satisfied with yours or not. We are always going to be in pursuit of the latest, greatest, and most mysterious one we can stick our guns into. For me, Alien Gear Holsters has always been a shadowy company. They seem to be everywhere. You seem them at the range, in advertisements, and people talk about them online. Simultaneously, I knew nothing about them and have never owned one. In a very serendipitous fashion, like smoke from a UFO with a glowing green light beckoning to me, Alien Gear reached out to me asking if I would like to try one. “Well, duh” I thought to myself. So in this TFB Review, we will take a look at one of their Cloak MOD OWB ( Outside the Waistband) holsters fit for my Springfield Armory 911 .380 ACP carry pistol.

So far this is The Bible on the Sako TRG A1, with almost 3 000 words of cleaning, shooting, testing and wisdom from Finland.

Last year, Bushnell came out with their Forge line of optics. The Bushnell Forge optics boast better lens coatings and higher magnification over their Nitro line. I opted to check out their 4.5-27×50 scope and see how it works for long range shooting.

In recent years the firearms industry has witnessed a boom in sales of Pistol Grip Firearms or PGFs.  “Firearms”, as they are classified, like the Remington Model 870 Tac-14 and Mossberg Shockwave have left some gun owners scratching their heads.  These specialty grip weapons are simply viewed as “firearms” or “non-shotgun shotguns” and have barrel lengths shorter than 18in.

Kel-Tec planned to release its new KS7 shotgun at Shot Show 2019 but leaked information got out about the gun early. Lucky for us, we got an opportunity to show you their newest bullpup pump-action shotgun before anyone else! The KS7 is a compact and lightweight design based on their popular KSG that features improved ergonomics, a slimmer profile, and reduced weight. The KS7 stuffs an 18.5 inch barrel in a 26 inch package! The gun is very well balanced over the pistol grip with a great point of aim. Kel-Tec wanted to ship a shotgun that was ready to rock out of the box so they incorporated a carry handle with a high visibility fluorescent triangle sight and M-LOK attachment points throughout the design. How it’s received by the public remains to be seen in view of the fact that it won’t be released for a few more weeks but Stephen Canty had a great time testing it out.

If you follow what’s going on here at TFB you know about the Spuhr accessories for the Heckler & Koch G3.

I remember the first time I saw a Ruger LCP in person.  It was at Gunsite’s pro shop in the spring of 2008. Better built than the P-3AT, it won me over and became part of my regular hot weather carry rotation.  I have fired a heck of a lot of rounds out of that Ruger (approximately 3k) and it still works well.  Though it’s been a great little pistol for pocket or holstered carry while in running or workout clothes, I always thought there were two areas for improvement:  The trigger and the sights.

For this week’s Friday Night Lights spotlight we will take a closer look at the SiOnyx Aurora. Last November I wrote an article about the validity of digital night vision technology. Click here to refresh your memory. I mentioned two strong candidates that can help one see in the dark without using a flashlight. Those examples were the Sony A7S and SiOnyx Aurora. After writing that article, some new test videos were posted online and the Aurora further piqued my interest. So I ordered the Aurora when it went on sale around Thanksgiving. You may be interested in what I discovered in my testing of the Aurora as a digital night vision camera and its potential to be used as a Night Optical/Observation Device (NOD).

Who got a holster for Christmas this year? Who wanted a holster for Christmas? Even though I have a closet and gun safe overflowing with holsters for all of my firearms I constantly have this grass is greener mentality to holsters. Always searching and trying to find one that is a hair better than the last one. As we journey into colder winter months, we can all do a little more OWB (Outside-the-Waistband) carrying since we are presumably donning heavy coats. As a result, I found myself revisiting a company we have tried before with Bravo Concealment. In this TFB Review, we take a look at the NEW Bravo Concealment OWB BCA 3.0 Gun Holster, specifically for a Glock 19, to see how it measures up to the competition!

Pop quiz: What was the first firearm that Mossberg manufactured? If you guessed a pistol, you have some bragging rights in the comments section. (If you said a shotgun, you clearly miss obvious clues…)

I’m happy to say this is the first TFB Review in 2019 – I am sure there will be many more during the year.

In what might have been this holiday season’s worst best kept secret, filled with the drama of artist renderings and feature speculations, TFB is finally ready to debut the real thing. GLOCK is releasing two new Slimline pistols – the GLOCK 43X and a longer slide GLOCK 48 – that are aimed squarely at the everyday carry market. Obviously, both guns are focused on narrow frames and slides, making carrying concealed a bit easier compared to either a compact or full size piece. But what else do these new handguns offer over current subcompact GLOCK models that will convert those shooters who are already comfortable with their current carry choices? Let’s take a look.

When it comes to shooting our favorite rifles, shotguns, pistols, or our entire gun safe it can get boring only shooting paper. That is why many of us have transitioned to or mix up our range days with some more interactive and fun shooting at steel targets. Aside from the visual swing of a successful hit and the little bit of sprayed dirt, it is really hard to beat the satisfaction of that iconic “Ping!” every time you connect with a successful shot. It used to be up to the shooter to rig up some hanging metal abomination to shoot at. In the past 10 years though, steel targets have become so popular in recreation and competition we can now buy them from reputable companies like Jumping Targets.

Horace Smith and Daniel Wesson became partners in 1852 with the goal of manufacturing a firearm that would fire a self-contained cartridge. The “Volcanic Pistol” was the result. It was a lever action pistol that would eventually be sold to Oliver Winchester when Smith & Wesson temporarily parted ways. Luckily for us, they found their way back together, and in 1857 the produced the Model 1 revolver. This little .22 rimfire triggered the end of the percussion firearm. Of course, Smith & Wesson came up with many innovations over the next 160+ years!

About six months ago I started a conversation with the team at Fire Control Unit (FCU) on Instagram – a bit of friendly banter about some of my favorite pistol caliber carbines versus their latest release. Of course, we had reported the initial announcement of the FCU X01 (EXO ONE) in late 2017 and the availability of the Personal Defense Weapon Chassis (PDW) chassis a few months ago, so I was familiar with the overall concept. As a recap, because the Sig Sauer P320 (and P250) weapons are completely modular, the entire registered unit/receiver can be moved between frames in less than thirty seconds, changing a compact pistol to a full-size competition gun with the only requirement being a few unregistered parts. Discovering the treasure trove of endless possibilities early on, FCU designed and built a PDW around the the actual firearm guts of the P320 pistol. The process, I believe, is a rare defining moment in firearms history and the future development of small arms.

I was sent the Savage Rascal for review. It is a very compact .22 bolt gun built with a synthetic stock and a heavy threaded barrel. The Rascal arrived with a 4X scope. I found it light and rather small. Clearly designed for a kiddo’s first .22. How many generations of American kids learned to shoot on a single action .22? It fills the bill in an outstanding way. With a combination of the Savage AcuTrigger and the ability to cock the action just by lifting the bolt (and not opening the chamber) it is perfect for trigger training. It is small enough for even a five or six year old to shoulder.

The most notable characteristic of a Mauser in the minds of many gun folks is the “claw”, the collared, full length extractor that has been ripping cartridge cases out of chambers since the late 1800’s.  While it is a very good system with the added benefit of controlled round feeding, there are other ways of doing things.    The fact is that Mauser with different types of extractors have been around since the late 60’s, with the Model 2000.  The Mauser M18 uses a 3 lug Voere-style 60-degree throw bolt with dual ejectors that locks into a barrel extension up against a breech ring.